It seems to have passed by Gainesville without even raining that much.
I’m here. The Ivyclan is all in one piece.
We lost power for about six hours last night. The food in our fridge and freezer should be okay, right? We didn’t open them.
My wooden windchime lost a few pieces. Ah well, it was time for a new one.
Our wooden trellis is definitely listing more to the right, but at least the mandevillas are okay. We’ll need to get that replaced. (The trellis, not the mandevillas.)
I heard all three hospitals in Charlotte County had to evacuate.
I’m still catching up on the news.
If anyone knows anyone in the hurricane zone AND can actually get through to them, please let them know the Red Cross and other organizations are there to help, or will be soon. The Red Cross is THE disaster organization and liases (is that a word?) with FEMA as well as city, county, and state emergency services. ARC can help with and give referrals to the myriad emergencies that will pop up to help those who are really bad off. Don’t be too shy to ask for help: This is why you donate and pay taxes, people.
I really hope y’all are ok.
Thanks for the good thoughts about my Aunt and Uncle’s winter home. They have their “regular” home in Ohio. This home was actually my Aunt’s mother’s guest home behind the big vacation house. When the mom died, they sold the big house, but Aunt Nancy decided to keep the guest house a little retreat. My Uncle Dutch had replaced the seawall twice, and they were just getting ready to replace the windows.
Uncle Dutch was in Ohio (the “regular” home). My Aunt Nancy was staying with some family friends in Lehigh Acres. They are all OK (thank God, I only have them and my Mom left).
On a side note, for those of you that remember her, TruePisces’ dad lives in North Port. I haven’t heard from him. I’m going to start emails to see if I can get some info.
Is everybody ok down there? We’ve been thinking good thoughts in your direction…
She didn’t buy the requisite hurricane food, vienna sausages? (Or potted meat, as you prefer.) Even if you don’t eat such scary meat products, their presence in your house is enough to make the hurricane veer away from your vicinity.
Just checking in~
Tampa and Brandon only got some wind and rain. My parents live in Lady Lake (near Mt. Dora) and managed just fine there as well.
My thoughts and prayers go out to all those whose homes were damaged or destroyed and who also may have lost a loved one; may peace and recovery come swiftly!
Hurricanes are windy. I mean really, really windy.
RNATB and roommates made it through okay… hell, I even won $42 playing drunken hurri-poker.
Our back yard is destroyed- two 40 foot trees down, and our shed is now our neighbors’ shed, there are missing shingles all over the roof, but otherwise everything is okay.
Oh, we don’t have any power so we’re staying at a friends’, but hell, there are two million other people in the same boat right now, and we have a roof, so I’m not complaining.
Glad everyone who has checked in is okay; we get the power switched back on tomorrow, so if anyone needs a place to stay I’ll help.
goodness that was a storm! going from 2 to 4 in 90 minutes, very impressive.
i’ve been watching cnn most of the day, the pictures are amazing.
my thoughts and prayers are will y’all in florida.
i hope earl doesn’t follow in charley’s path.
looks like florida will get to pick a new “c” name for the hurricane list. what are the odds for clyde?
Talked to TruePisces today. Everyone in her family is fine.
BTW, does anyone here know how my alma mater, Florida Southern College in Lakeland, fared? It has the world’s largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture, so I’m a little worried.
Unfortunately, my MIL did not fare as well.
About 10pm, they heard a huge roaring sound. The oak tree from the neighbor behind her came crashing down, destroying the fence, crashing into the screened enclosure of her pool, and is now resting in the pool. The roof above her porch is buckled.
It will be at least two days before the power is back on, so we’re storing her refrigerator and freezer goods at our house.
We lost my FIL at the end of March, so this was just icing on the cake for her. Fortunately, my SILs were over at her house, so she didn’t have to weather this alone.
She can’t find the house insurance paperwork (Dad took care of all that 
) so she’s going to call the bank Monday, find out who they have listed as the homeowner’s insurance, and give them a call. I would think the neighbor’s insurance would have to pay for the damages, but he talked to a “friend” who said, no, it would be her responsibility.
Glad to see those have checked in are faring well (for the most part). It looked absolutely horrible down there and I was worried about our Floridian dopers.
Ivylass, I think your MIL’s neighbor is full of ca-ca. Seems to me, if the tree was on HIS property, he is partly responsible. I could be wrong…but somehow until your MIL hears “officially” I wouldn’t believe the neighbor.
Hi everyone. Just checking in. As you are doubtless aware, the hurricane ended up nowhere near us. We just got a little wind and the occasional rain. This place was a ghost town from Thursday until Saturday. Good thing we held off until the very last minute on deciding whether to flee to “safer” Orlando or Polk County. Our family and friends out there have had a tough time but are all safe and sound.
The woman who manages my business was forced to evacuate Pinellas County and she went to stay with her dad in some Orlando neighborhood (maybe Hunter’s Creek? Sound familiar) that was hit pretty hard by winds and/or tornado(es). They only got minor damage but almost every other home there took some serious damage. Lots of trees down in Lake Wales. Our friends in Celebration had to work the whole time; he is an engineer for TECO and she is a nurse at the hospital there and ended up working almost three straight shifts.
In the Fort Meyers area my BIL’s father owns a trailer home in a community there. He plans to retire down there from Kentucky in a few years. Only five homes remain standing in the entire community. His is one of the five. I’m still not sure if that is lucky or not. Hope the rest of them were fully empty when this damned thing hit.
So we have very mixed feelings out here. Happy it didn’t hit us, sad that it had to hit someone. Hope the rest of you all are healthy as are your families.
I think so too. Probably what will happen is her insurance company will end up paying, then turn around and sue his insurance company for costs.
And we wonder why our premiums are so high.
Found out yesterday that my dad’s house in Lake Wales got pretty beat up. It’s on a lake. No one was there at the time (although he had invited his friends in Pinellas to stay there since they had to evacuate). The dock was almost entirely gone (his was the only dock in the area that was even partially intact though, everyone else’s were gone) - palm trees were blown over, two big oak trees near the property were blown over. Everyone else near our place had their porch screens blown off (ours didn’t). And all the shingles on the roof were blown off. (sigh) I haven’t been up there yet, but it sounds like a mess.
One of my friends has a mother who lives in Fort Myers. They went back yesterday and found the chimney in the driveway. A lot of her porch was destroyed, but the place was pretty much intact. Pretty devastating, I can imagine, to find your house ripped up like that. She says a lot of people in her neighborhood didn’t even have walls - you could see straight through their houses.
Hope everyone else is doing okay!
My family is fine, lots of trees down and no electricity in our near future. The in-laws have a tree through the rough. We’re all staying at my brother’s house in Palm Coast since he’s the only one with power. I’m sure he really appreciates having to step over all of us to get to work at 5 am!
We’re in search of a generator so we can go home since we are expected at work tomorrow. I’ll update more and include pics when I can.
The power is back on at my MIL’s house. We’ll be taking a trip out there today to return her food and help her look for the insurance papers.
My husband reminded me that the couple who sold the ugly house to us moved to the Orlando area. We’re taking bets as to how long before they come back and ask to buy their house back…
My Sister & her family, & my Brother are fine.
My Brother’s house is all torn up, though.
Should be fine, HOOB, but I’ll let you know for sure when I go back to work. My office is about a mile away from there and it was fine, might not have even lost power, according to the Big Boss who had to go in and scope it out Saturday. In Bartow, trees are down all over, and there are huge lines for gas. No ice to be had. Because…in Bowling Green, Wauchula, Fort Meade, Lake Wales, and many surrounding communities, there’s no power. And won’t be for days. I have power, water, and phone. I’ve given all the ice in my house to my mom. I had frozen several containers of water prior to the storm just in case of extended power outages, in fact. She and my brother just got back from Sebring, where they bought a generator. My dad is running the power to his house off his welding machine/generator.
I lost 4 pine trees and had two sections of fence come down. They’re back up now, so my dogs can be outside unchained. I was without power from 6:30 pm Friday to 3pm Saturday and from 8pm Saturday to 8:30 am Sunday. Fortunately, it was cool enough I didn’t feel the lack of airconditioning too much. I’ve just cooked a big batch of chicken breasts on the grill, since they thawed and I don’t want them to spoil.
I’m home alone, though, because Himself has had to camp out at the prison where he works. He’s the electrician, and he’s had to keep the generators running, and hook up new generators that were delivered. The Major was nice enough to invite me to hang out there, too, if I wanted, but I didn’t take her up on it. I have critters to care for, and wanted to see if I could help my mom some. The power in the communities south of here may be off for a week or more.